Loss
by SuperPaperBag
Summary: "Not every battle could be won. There were numerous reasons why a mission could be failed and lives extinguished. One such reason was as was currently the case that the Grand Chase was simply too late... By the time Zero, Dio, and Rufus had arrived, the small Elven village was annihilated and seemed to be inhabited only by corpses..." Rated M for profanity. Written in Zero's POV.


Not every battle could be won.

There were numerous reasons why a mission could be failed and lives extinguished. One such reason was (as was currently the case) that the Grand Chase was simply too late. An attack on a small Elven village on the coast near Elven Forest had been reported only around thirty minutes ago, and despite the prompt dispatch of three chasers it was simply too late. By the time Zero, Dio, and Rufus had arrived, the village was annihilated and seemed to be inhabited only by corpses.

The trio would have much rather preferred that an actual elf had been sent to deal with the issue; however Lire and Ryan were both in Ellia at the time the incident was first reported, and Zero was, after all, partially an elf.

"Looks like we're about ten minutes too late," Dio remarked, glancing over the bodies of the deceased.

Demons became accustomed to blood and death at a very young age; consequently none of the demons were incredibly bothered with the grisly sight around them.

"Elves are a relatively peaceful race…and this village was pretty isolated. I doubt many survived," Rufus commented. "Any that did probably would have run back to Eryuell Island by now."

"We must be certain there are no survivors before we report this loss," Zero stated firmly.

"Fine…"

"Stop complaining; it's a small village. It shouldn't take you that long to search the place," Rufus muttered dryly.

From there the trio split up to search the ruined village, all three of them heading in different directions. Zero found himself following a trail of small houses—more accurately, what was left of the residences. "Gran…do you sense any presences?" he inquired.

"Yes, but only a few small ones. They're probably just birds or small scavenging animals," the sword replied unconcernedly.

After giving the fourth house a meticulous inspection, Zero suddenly detected a sound that suspiciously resembled breathing. The wanderer froze and listened to the noise for a few moments to be sure that it was not simply the wind. After around a minute he deduced that it was indeed breathing and that the breathing likely did not belong to Dio or Rufus due to its shaky, shallow quality.

The wanderer calmly made his way to a small, shack-like building nearby where the noise originated. The roof of the small shack had caved in; several boards obstructed the opening and interior of the small room.

As a small test, the wanderer purposely snapped a twig underfoot. In response to the small noise created by the twig breaking, the breathing sound abruptly hitched and lowered in volume.

Zero quickly moved the boards in front of him aside, eventually revealing a small, battered Elven girl. The girl appeared to have her leg trapped under several boards and was bleeding heavily from that limb. Upon his approach the elf's eyes widened and she stiffened as if paralyzed.

"D…demon…"

The wanderer was a bit surprised that his race had been accurately identified so quickly. "I do not intend to harm you," he quickly stated, lifting the board that hindered the girl's movement. The second she was freed the elf attempted to stand; however instantly after putting weight on the formerly-hindered leg she cringed and fell back onto her rear.

"You should be more careful," Zero warned softly. "It is possible that you have suffered serious bruising or even a hairline fracture."

The girl did not respond vocally. Her eyes darted frantically around the small room, searching for some means of escape like a small, frightened animal.

"Can you at least inform me of what occurred here?"

She made eye contact with the demon and, after another moment of silence, mumbled grimly, "We were surrounded. There were monsters surrounding the village. Anyone who tried to escape died, and those who remained were killed by the stronger monsters that were sent in later. I was probably mistaken for dead." The girl then averted her eyes and remained silent. She seemed to have accepted the fact that she was trapped alone with the wanderer and could not escape on her own.

Zero remained where he was. He knew that any attempt to assist the elf would likely be seen as some sort of attack.

After a few moments of staring blankly at the floor, the young girl looked back at Zero and inquired, "Why?"

The wanderer assumed she was referring to why the elves were attacked in the first place. "To demons, your race appears to have allied with humans. As demons oppose humans, they will oppose your kind as well," he explained calmly.

"Not that!" she exclaimed, her eyes beginning to water. "Why do you demons do…do **this**? Why do you corrupt monsters and send them after innocent people? Why are you trying to take over our world? We've never done anything to deserve this! You're just monsters, all of you!"

"As one being, I cannot possibly hope to speak on the behalf of an entire race."

"Try," she dared him, wiping away the tears threatening to fall down her cheeks.

Zero settled himself on the ground across from her and set the Grandark on the ground in front of him in a sign of amity—although he honestly did not need his sword to dispose of the small child if he wanted to. "First of all, there is one primary difference between demons and monsters. A demon—unless mentally insane—does not fight without reason. A monster kills senselessly; for the most part without purpose. The main reason that demons have opposed humans in this war is in order to reclaim this dimension. Our race was sealed in the other dimension many, many years ago by the humans, and our dimension is, in many respects, not a very pleasant place. Our kind adapted to conditions of the other dimension in time. For example, skin color changed and eyes became more sensitive to light in response to the lack of sunlight. However, I digress. Also, many lesser demons join Void's cause due to fear of him. By siding with him and following his orders they will avoid destruction at his hand. There are many other reasons, as well, but we should not waste time with this. Do you know of anything left here worth scavenging?"

"...It's just a small village. We…we didn't have much," she mumbled weakly.

"Lying to me would be pointless," the wanderer reminded her. "I am only here to help."

"Trust me, there's nothing. There are other people looking through here, aren't there? I can hear them; they're really noisy. I'm assuming they're with you. They'll tell you the same thing I just told you." By this point she seemed to have regained her composure.

Zero smiled slightly in reassurance and inquired, "How are you feeling?"

"Not great. I'm trapped in a very small room with an injured leg and a demon. And even if I could get out, it's not like there's anywhere for me to go. I wouldn't survive a trip to Eryuell Island from here all alone."

"You are very wise."

"Thanks, I guess. Why are you helping me, by the way?"

The wanderer removed the Grand Chase necklace from under his shirt and stated, "I am part of an organization called 'Grand Chase' that is intent on stopping Void. Have you heard of them?"

"Nope."

"I see. I intend to bring you back to headquarters. One of the members is an elf from the Elven Corps...she can assist you further," Zero stated. He absentmindedly noted that the other two chasers that had accompanied him to the village were approaching.

"Alright."

"You seem unusually compliant recently," the wanderer remarked, remembering how the girl had behaved when he had first met her.

She shrugged slightly. "I figure that there's really no point being afraid by now. If you had wanted me dead, I would be dead. There's no point being mad at you, either. It's not like you did this."

"You are indeed very wise… Will you allow m-"

The wanderer was abruptly interjected by a familiar voice from nearby. "Zero! Did you find anything?" Dio shouted.

Zero made eye contact with the elf and told her he would return in a few moments. Leaving the Grandark on the ground, the wanderer stood and approached the other two demons, who were currently standing around forty feet away behind a large broken rafter.

"Oh, there you are," the stygian stated nonchalantly. "So…find anything?"

"I located one survivor; a small girl."

"And she didn't immediately try to shoot you through with arrows? Nice."

"She was unarmed. Did you two find anything of interest?" the wanderer inquired.

Rufus quickly shook his head. "Not a thing. You know, other than corpses and broken goods. You were even taking so long that we had time to look twice."

"I see. Then there is nothing left for us to do here, correct?"

"Pretty much."

Zero sighed inwardly and returned to the shack that contained what appeared to be the sole survivor of the village. Dio and Rufus (for lack of anything better to do) followed the wanderer. When he returned, the silver-haired demon noticed that the girl appeared to be unconscious. "What happened?" he wondered aloud.

"Almost the moment you left she passed out," Grandark explained, not seeming to care in the slightest. "It's just fatigue. It looks like she was fighting to stay awake while you were around."

Without a word the wanderer replaced his sword on his back and gently picked up the elven girl, taking the utmost care with her injured leg. "Alright, let us depart."

"You going to carry her the whole way?"

"Is there a problem?"

"Nope; just asking."

With that the three demons left the destroyed village. Not one of them turned back to once again observe the wreckage and the corpses. They continued in silence for a long time, not having anything to say to each other.

"So…" Rufus muttered, attempting to break the ungodly silence that enveloped the small group. "What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you guys?"

"Where the hell did that come from?" Dio asked.

"I was just thinking. This is probably the worst thing that's ever going to happen to this little girl here, you know."

Silence returned for a brief moment. "Well, I proposed the question, so I might as well answer first," the bounty hunter reasoned. "Surprisingly enough, it wasn't my mother leaving or my father going after her that stuck in my memory the most. It was kind of after that. When it was just me living in the clan, I kept away from anyone. I felt like I couldn't trust anyone anymore. I felt like they'd all leave me, too. But there was this one boy…I forgot his name…he just kept following me. No matter where I went, no matter what I did, he was always like my shadow. I initially passed him off as just an annoying brat, but one day we just starting talking. This led to that, and his persistence eventually yielded the closest thing to a friendship I recall having. I'm not sure what he wanted, but just talking to someone was enough for me. We grew up for a few years together and everything seemed fine. Then…he was discovered to have been releasing souls trapped in the underworld…" Rufus' voice trailed off.

"Let me guess: execution?"

"Yeah. It was a big crime; apparently he had been doing that for years without anyone knowing. I never thought a little scrawny whelp like him could ever manage something like that. To this day I still have no idea why he did what he did. But anyway, because of the severity of the crime the execution was public. It seems like everyone who I start caring about ends up leaving me in some way…"

Dio scoffed. "Being the executioner isn't always fun, either, you know. It's basically putting on your best clothes just to kill someone in front of a bunch of other demons."

"Oh right…I keep forgetting you're a chieftain."

The stygian shot Rufus a particularly vicious glance and asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying you don't exactly look like one. Don't take it so seriously. Jeez," Rufus muttered. "Well, since you interrupted, it's your turn now, Dio."

"What kind of fucked-up logic is that?"

"Just shut up and do it."

Dio rolled his eyes and elicited a frustrated sigh. "Fine, it's better than listening to you bitch about it the rest of the way back." He paused for a moment before stating, "I guess I'd have to say…childhood. Yeah, my childhood just in general."

"What was so bad about it?"

"Well for starters there was always a shitload of pressure on me because I was going to grow up to be the next chieftain. Besides that I was bullied a lot as a kid and I was a real crybaby back then."

"Oh! I heard about that. Didn't Ley used to always come in and save your ass?"

"Fuck off. She wasn't helping anything. I don't know what her intentions were, but all she did was shield me. For the longest time I didn't learn how to deal with problems like that myself because she dealt with it for me. I grew up weak and spineless and always ran from my problems because of what that bitch did. It wasn't until much later that I learned how to stand up for myself. One of the reasons demons are so strong is because our society is so rough and we have to learn to deal with it early on."

Suddenly the stygian's awkward personality made a bit more sense to the wanderer. It was very likely that Dio's personality was essentially a self-defense mechanism. The magenta-haired demon likely had subconsciously adopted such a strange way of behaving in order to ward off others and prevent them from harming him as he had been in childhood. Zero had simply been one of the few who had managed to remain around the stygian long enough to become accustomed to such strange behavior.

"…What about you, Zero?" Dio inquired, turning towards the wanderer.

"I cannot think of one particular incident that I would consider the 'worst,'" he replied honestly.

"Well…are there any that really stick out?"

Zero thought for a moment and recalled two such incidents that were prominent in his memory. "Yes. There are two that come to mind. The first concerns a small Elven village when I was still new to this dimension… I was wandering in the forest near an Elven village and, after being spotted by the native elves, was bombarded with arrows. In the end, I was pierced with twenty-four arrows in various locations. Fortunately my more vital regions were spared. I managed to escape to a safe distance and spent the next two hours removing those arrows."

"That sucks. Arrows are a bitch to remove; almost as bad as bullets," Dio remarked. "Were you even doing anything suspicious around that village?"

"I did not think so. Then again, I was new to the region, so perhaps I did so something taboo. Considering my race…I do not exactly blame those elves for what they did."

"It seems a bit aggressive, though, don't you think? Doesn't sound like elves at all," Rufus pointed out.

Dio shrugged and stated, "You'd be surprised. They're peaceful only as long as you're not seen as a threat. Just being a demon is a pretty big threat in an elf's eyes. I've had them attack me, too, but that was for accidentally destroying some tree or some shit. But anyway, move on to the second story, Zero. There's no use dwelling on any one thing."

The wanderer nodded and continued, "The second also occurred just after I had arrived in Aernas. I was still new to the terrain, and while fighting a group of monsters a rockslide occurred. I was caught off-guard and trapped under heavy boulders with heavy wounds inflicted by the falling rock. I was trapped lying down on my back for around two and a half hours until I had recovered enough to break free. I was very fortunate that there was enough air trapped with me. To this day I panic whenever I find myself in a lying-down position…"

"Hold up. Remember when we were in Xenia with Ley and I pinned you down to get the mask off?" Dio asked, a wary look on his features. "You handled that pretty well, if I recall correctly."

"Whoa there, when the hell did that happen?" Rufus asked.

"You were looking for your guns; don't work yourself up over it."

The stygian looked over at Zero expectantly. After a moment the wanderer responded, "At that moment, I was indeed quite panicked, and I recalled the incident with the rockslide quite clearly. Simply because you do not see my emotions does not mean that they are not present."

"Oh…"

Zero had noticed that those who met him often seemed to assume that because he displayed very little emotion he did not know how to "feel" emotions such as happiness and sadness, when in reality he was perfectly capable of experiencing a wide variety of feelings. He often wondered where that assumption that seemed so preposterous to him had originated from.

Now that the stories had been shared, the dreaded silence returned. This time; however, it seemed a bit lighter than before.

"I've never done something like this before," Rufus stated abruptly. "What's going to happen to the girl?"

"Erm…well, I'm normally not sent out for these kinds of missions. You know, for rather obvious reasons," Dio stated.

Zero sighed—he was not incredibly fond of having to speak so copiously—and answered, "She will likely be first physically and mentally evaluated. There is a chance that she may have suffered more physical wounds than the wounds on her leg, and it is very likely she may suffer some form of posttraumatic stress disorder. After that I presume she will be relocated to her nearest family, or, if there are no living family members, another family on Eryuell Island."

"I see. Have you done this kind of thing before?" the bounty hunter asked Zero.

"A few times, yes."

"Does it become easier?"

"As a demon…I have witnessed far worse. This is merely one small ripple in a vast sea."

* * *

When the three chasers had returned to the Grand Chase headquarters, Zero brought the Elven girl to the infirmary, while Dio and Rufus visited Knight Master to report the incident with the destroyed Elven village. Lire was standing outside of the infirmary when the wanderer arrived—he presumed she had heard of the episode—and quickly noticed the small girl in his arms.

"Zero…what happened?" she inquired. The wanderer detected trepidation in her tone.

The silver-haired demon calmly explained what had occurred. When he had finished, the archer merely stared at the ground for a moment, took a deep breath, and stated, "Thank you. I'll take this little one from here."

"Are you alright?" Zero asked after handing over the child.

"Yes…I'll be fine. We may have lost the battle, but there is always the war." She was silent for a moment. "War…war is a terrible thing, isn't it? I'm sure your kind has suffered losses, too."

"I have never seen a war without casualties."

* * *

Author's Notes:

-Well, this fic has been flittering about in my head for...three weeks now? I dunno, something like that. xD I finally got off my ass and got to writing it down. Also, my friend fell asleep before she could read this, so I'm very reluctant to post. Haha, the only reason I did was because my readers are all basically on when it's night where I live.

-I could say the little elven girl remained nameless in this to show her lack of significance and a bunch of other really deep reasons, but it's mainly just because I'm horrible at naming characters. xD

-Don't you just love how I totally make things up? No? Yeah, me either. =.= Anywho, Rufus' little story was, of course, totally made up (again, the kid was nameless. Lol). Even though both his mother and father both left him and they're his family, this incident with the nameless boy affected Rufus more because: 1. This was after Rufus already lost his parents, so it was like salt to old wounds, and 2. The kid was actually killed, whereas Rufus' parents are very likely still alive somewhere.

-Dio's little story basically was an attempt to explain those pictures of him crying as a toddler floating around on the internet. And another reason why he loathes Ley. And to kind of explain why he acts like a gigantic douchebag. Yup.

-Zero's first story is to show that elves can be jerks, too. Or something, I guess. The second was basically just so I could get Zero to say that last line about having emotions and not showing them and all that. Also, it was a shameless reference to my previous story, Xenia: Land of the Gods. I think they're referring to…Chapter 3? Not sure. xD You know, that scene that everyone thought was going to be yaoi but wasn't? Ahh, I'm a horrible person. xDD Oh, and you know how Dio's always nagging Zero about running from his problems? Yup, it's apparently because Dio went through that already. xD

-I don't know much about Lire, and I'm not used to writing for her, so…yeah, I hope it wasn't that bad. xD Oh well.

-That last line is actually a quote from a manga/anime. xD If you know where it's from, kudos!

-The purpose of this story was just basically to show that war sucks for everyone, and even in a game like Grand Chase not every battle's going to be won. There are going to be losses and all that. Also, more of the conflict between demons and humans and all that great nonsense you're all probably tired of by now. xD Also, character development. Something like that.

-Thanks for reading. It's like...2 in the morning right now where I live, so I'm pretty out of it at the moment. Sorry if something's totally screwed up. =.= Especially the AN...


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